Jacques Hamel

Jacques Hamel (30 November 1930-26 July 2016) was a French Catholic priest belonging to the parish of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray in the Archdiocese of Rouen. On 26 July 2016, he was murdered by Islamic State supporters in the 2016 Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray church attack.

Biography
Jacques Hamel was born on 30 November 1930 in Darnetal, Normandy, France to a Catholic family. In 1958, he became a vicar at the St. Antoine church in Le Petit-Quevilly, and in 1975 he became the parish priest of Cleon. He would arrive at the Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray church to become the new parish priest in 2005, having lived in the town for five years. Hamel was a very kind man, but on 26 July 2016 two supporters of the Islamic State terrorist group burst into his church during mass and took Hamel, two nuns, and two parishioners hostage. The hostage-takers decided to murder the preach to spread their message of anti-Christianity, and they shouted "Daesh" (the Arabic acronym for "ISIS", their terrorist group) before slitting his throat. He is considered a martyr by the Catholic church, and Archbishop of Rouen Dominique Lebrun invited believers and nonbelievers to pray for him.